U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Friday (December 13) to meet Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for talks on the future of neighboring Syria, Reuters reports.
Blinken is touring the region in the wake of the swift collapse of Bashar al-Assad's government in the face of an advance by Syrian opposition factions. Assad's ouster took Washington by surprise and the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden is urging the victorious rebels, with whom it is scrambling to establish contacts, to create a government that eschews Islamist factions and is inclusive of Syria's minorities.
Blinken visited the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and said he spoke to Sudani about the situation in Syria. The pair discussed "the conviction of so many countries in the region and beyond that, as Syria transitions from the Assad dictatorship to hopefully a democracy, it does so in a way that, of course, protects all of the minorities in Syria that produces an inclusive, non-sectarian government," Blinken said, adding that Syria should not become a "platform for terrorism."
Iraq, which is led by a coalition of mostly Shi'ite political parties and armed groups close to Iran, is a major player in Tehran's so-called Axis of Resistance that includes Hamas in Gaza and Lebanese Hezbollah and has faced setbacks since Israel responded to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
